Something to Stare At
by yaaaaaaayme
Summary: Billy's mother decides that he and Teddy should spend a bit more time together. Her solution? Send him to Teddy's high school, of course. But will the change put a strain on the relationship? Oneshot, BillyxTeddy obviously


Just a little something I thought up while on the plane home from my vacation… I wanted to write it before i got back to my bigger pieces.

I actually haven't read _Young Avengers_ for a pretty long time, but, after reading several fanfictions, I was suddenly struck with the urge to write my own. So, here it is: a little BillyxTeddy oneshot for your reading pleasure! (I hope I remember enough, sorry if I get a few details wrong.)

**Warnings:** Well, naturally, it focuses on everyone's favorite (canon!) gay couple, Billy and Teddy, so there will obviously be some boy on boy themes. And a little language, I suppose… I rated it T, but it's really not even that bad.

**Disclaimer:** I do not, in any form, own _Young Avengers_ or the characters therein, as they are the property of Marvel Comics. Seriously, I don't even own the comic book. I should buy it… or get a job to be able to do so.

Enjoy~!

**

* * *

**

**Something to Stare At**

Billy Kaplan could not _believe_ how much his mother was interfering.

Oh, sure, he was glad that she was so accepting of his relationship with Teddy. Grateful when she and his father didn't freak out after the two boys had finally told them about their superpowers. Even happy when his adoptive parents had insisted on including Teddy like part of the family, and assured that he and Billy would always be able to spend time together! But this…. _This!_ It was going a little too far…

Due to his mother's sudden decision, Billy was transferring to a new school. More specifically, he was transferring to _Teddy's_ school. And she hadn't even _told_ him of it until the morning of the day before the switch, giving him just one day to gather his belongings and part with the few friends he'd had at his old school. It wasn't that Billy didn't want to go to school with Teddy, but… changing high schools in the middle of his junior year? It was downright upsetting!

And here he was, head hidden in his new locker as he tried to ignore all the students passing him by on their way to their next class. He couldn't believe it; he was the new kid again, just a shiny object of interest, an unknown discovery, something to stare at. He felt like slamming the locker door shut while his head was still in it.

But then a familiar laugh from somewhere behind him pulled him out of his melodramatic misery. Turning around towards the sound, he saw big, strong, amazingly handsome, not-so-bad-to-brag-about, bring-me-home-to-meet-your-mother Theodore Altman― a.k.a., his boyfriend, Teddy. He sighed a contented exhalation displaying his dreamy thoughts about unicorns, fluffy clouds, and butterflies. How he ever got such a wonderful guy to be his boyfriend was beyond even his colorful imagination.

Teddy was with a small group of other big and strong-looking boys, all of whom― including Teddy― were wearing matching letterman jackets and laughing at something one of them had said moments prior. Billy sighed again, and this time it was not in a sunshine-and-rainbows, I'm-so-happy manner, but rather an annoyed my-boyfriend-hangs-out-with-stupid-jocks huff of frustration. He slammed his locker shut, intending to go to the other end of the hall to wait for the guidance counselor, who had left to get him his class schedule. Unfortunately, he banged it shut harder than he'd intended, as it made a loud crashing noise that echoed through the emptying hallway. Heads turned to look at him― the exact opposite of the kind of attention he'd wanted from the other students― including the (oh-so-gorgeous) head of one Teddy Altman. Teddy's blue eyes widened in surprise at the sight of his dark-haired boyfriend.

"Billy?" he asked, walking away from his friends a little to go to where the slightly red-faced boy stood, "What are you doing here?"

"You can blame my mom for that," answered Billy, in a quiet voice that only Teddy could hear, "She thinks we should be together at school, as well." Teddy smiled brightly at that. "I tried to argue, but she started psychoanalyzing me…"

Teddy's smile became slightly confused. "You argued against coming here?" he asked rhetorically, "I think it's great!"

It was Billy's turn to be confused. "You do?" he inquired, "But aren't you worried―" Billy's voice was cut off by a louder voice emanating from down the hall.

"Hey, yo, Teddy!" it called obnoxiously, evidently originating from a lumbering bear masquerading as a student in a varsity jacket. "You know this little fag?"

Teddy's expression was briefly apologetic towards Billy, then went back to his confident smiling to face his friends (to his magic-wielding boyfriend, it seemed as though he'd used his shape shifting to switch so smoothly between the two facial displays so quickly and easily). "Yeah, I do, Brett," he said smoothly, "He's a friend of mine." It hurt Billy a bit to be introduced as just his 'friend', but he knew there was no way Teddy could say what they really were to each other. The jock looked unconvinced.

"Where do you know him from?" he asked. Billy's breath caught in his throat. It wasn't as if Teddy could just say 'oh, he and I just fight crime together in our spare time, that's how I met him' and the two had yet to come up with a good cover story (considering Teddy had just found out that Billy was going to be there).

"I know him from―" Billy wasn't sure what the tall blonde was going to make up, but luckily he didn't have to think of anything, as his voice was cut off by a woman's voice coming from behind them.

"I've got your schedule, Billy," the guidance counselor announced cheerfully, approaching the group of boys. "Oh, I see you're already met Theodore."

"Uh, yeah," Billy responded, taking the sheet of paper from her hand, "We, um, already know each other."

"Well then," she said, "I'm sure he wouldn't mind showing you around the school, would you, Mr. Altman?"

"Of course not," agreed Teddy, looking grateful for the interruption. "Yeah, it looks like you have English next," he told Billy, looking at the paper in the shorter boy's hand. "I know where it is, I'll take you there…"

* * *

"Sorry about those guys," Teddy apologized, repeatedly tossing and catching an apple as he lay back on a couch in the Kaplan home. "They're complete jerks."

"You're friends with them," Billy said flatly, rubbing a sore shoulder and sitting down beside Teddy on the couch when the larger boy sat up to make room. He'd been going to Teddy's school for only one day― _half_ of one day! ―and already he'd been pushed into a wall of lockers hard enough to form a big, purple bruise. It was enough to make a boy develop a lifelong fear of stacked metal boxes.

"Yeah, it kind of comes with being on the football team," Teddy sighed.

"You can't just be their friend on the field?" the boy witch asked hopefully.

"It would look pretty bad if we weren't friends off the field as well," he explained. "You know, for appearance's sake."

"Yeah," Billy mumbled, "Appearance's sake…"

"They're not always that bad," Teddy defended weakly.

"Oh really?" Billy asked in a wry tone, "This is what they do even after you tell them I'm your friend?" He indicated his wounded shoulder, which had indeed been caused by the same guys who'd been with Teddy earlier that day. "I'd hate to see what they'd do if you said I was your enemy…"

"No one should be allowed to treat you that way," Teddy assured Billy, wrapping a protective arm around him and taking care not to touch the bruise. "I'll tell them to lay off you, because you're close to me and I don't want to see you get hurt."

Billy chewed on his lip, still mulling over what he'd been thinking about since that morning.

"You know," he began slowly, his tone that of dancing around the real subject, "Maybe it would be best if you, like, didn't." Teddy's brow wrinkled in confusion. "I mean, you said it, right? Everything for how you appear to everyone …"

"That's not what I―"

"No, you're right about that. It would look kind of suspicious if you and I were good friends. So… we just shouldn't act like we are when we're at school."

"Are you sure that's what you want?" Teddy's brow had yet to unwrinkle, and his eyes looked concerned. No, it really wasn't what Billy wanted at all; but it _was_ what was best for Teddy. Billy nodded.

"We can still spend time together outside of school," he amended, looking up at his boyfriend somewhat suggestively through dark bangs.

"Oh?" asked Teddy, equally suggestively, "You mean like right now?" Billy grinned back mischievously before leaning into the taller boy.

Teddy's apple lay forgotten on the side table, as his mouth was occupied by something else entirely.

* * *

It was Tuesday; that meant it had been one week. He'd survived attending Teddy's school for one _week_. The entire thing was an absolute nightmare, and Billy was pretty sure no amount of his mother's free (and unwanted) therapy would erase the sheer horror of it all. And now― a flashback to last week caused by post-traumatic stress disorder!? Oh wait, that was just the monotony of high school…

Billy groaned and slammed his locker shut (with more finesse this time, as to not cause a disturbance) and trudged his way to the school cafeteria with his homemade lunch held loosely in his hand. It wasn't that he was picked on too much at this new school― in that regard, it was only a little worse than his old school, and he could handle it. And it wasn't that he minded the commute to this school, which was just a few minutes longer than to his old one. And it wasn't even that he'd yet to make any real friends here, forcing him to sit at the outcast table way in the corner of the cafeteria, where three bespectacled freshmen were arguing over who would win in a fight between Batman and Iron Man (Billy rolled his eyes upon hearing this, finding the true answer _painfully_ obvious) and two goth kids were engaged in a silent staring contest. No, it was none of these things; it was something much more irking.

Yes, he'd told Teddy that they shouldn't act close when they were at school. But he almost immediately regretted that, as Teddy was almost _too_ good at pretending to ignore him. He just kept hanging out and laughing like usual with his school friends. To make matters worse, the only excuse for knowing each other that they could come up with was that Billy had tutored Teddy earlier in the year (not an outright lie, as he had helped him with homework on more than one occasion), thereby solidifying Billy's status as a complete nerd, unfit to be seen around the kings of the school. And even when they were alone, Teddy felt distant somehow.

The previous week had passed pretty uneventfully, with Billy getting more annoyed each passing day with being ignored at his new school and the minimal amount of time that he and Teddy spent together outside of school. The weekend brought only one major disturbance for the Young Avengers to deal with involving a man calling himself The Mosquito trying to steal an entire shipment of bug nets down at the docks (where the large storage containers revealed Billy's sudden irrational fear of stacked metal boxes). But he'd been entirely too easy to beat, and Wiccan and Hulkling had gone back to their boring lives as Billy and Teddy, in which the blond was becoming steadily more distant from the now disgruntled brunette.

Billy was broken out of his internal rant about the irritating actions of popular boyfriends by the sound of said boyfriend's name coming from one table over.

"…Teddy Altman, he's gorgeous," a girl was saying to her friend, staring dreamily over to where the teen sat. "It's amazing that a guy like that can stay single."

"I overheard him telling someone once that he's dating someone from another school," the friend said back, "But lately he's been acting like he's single…"

That was it. Billy pretty much snapped at those words. He shoved his half-eaten sandwich back into his brown paper lunch bag and stood from the table, throwing the bag away as he went, not really feeling like eating anymore. He crossed the cafeteria quickly― failing in his attempt to walk normally as if nothing was wrong―, making a beeline straight for where Teddy sat with the other jocks. The blond boy was facing away from him, laughing at something Brett was saying, which involved at lot of spastic arm movements. Therefore, the shape shifter didn't expect what hit him. The football players' table got quieter as he came to stand behind Teddy.

"The little queer boy is back," commented Brett to inform Teddy that Billy had arrived. The well-built crime fighter turned around, smiling.

"Teddy, can I talk to you for a second?" he asked quietly, almost meekly, standing with one arm awkwardly holding the other.

"Yeah, sure," replied Teddy, still smiling, "What is it?"

"He probably wants to ask you to be his prom date," Brett mocked in a manner that was supposed to be like a comment said under his breath, while, in reality, he said it quite loud. The other occupants of the table laughed heartily. Teddy did nothing to defend him, and that ignited something within Billy.

"Maybe I should rephrase that," he said in a stronger voice, "Teddy, we need to talk." The smile all but fell from Teddy's face and his eyes went wide upon hearing the infamous breakup line. He stood instantly. "Not here, though," said Billy, giving a disgusted look back at Brett and the others before walking a few steps out of earshot.

"What is it?" Teddy asked, his voice concerned. Billy sighed.

"This isn't working," the smaller teen explained, his voice heavy with emotion. Teddy's brow crinkled together.

"What, and now you'll say 'it's not you, it's me'?" he questioned in an angry whisper. His boyfriend frowned.

"No, Teddy," he whisper-yelled back, "It _is_ you. You've been ignoring me all week!"

"Because you told me to!"

"I know, it's just… you're acting like I don't even exist, like I'm nothing to you. And it makes me think that that's what you really feel!" Billy became aware that they were attracting a little bit of an audience. By little bit, he meant the entire lunchroom. Luckily, he had been making sure to keep his voice quiet enough so that only Teddy could hear it. But now, he felt it was best to end the discussion there. He began to walk away, only to have Teddy grab his arm and pull him back.

"That's not true at all!" the strong boy argued, trying to stop the heated conversation before it became an actual fight. "I'm only doing what you said you thought was best, and not acting close to you at school. Isn't that what you wanted?"

The Kaplan boy bit his lip. "No, it wasn't…"

"Then what _do_ you want?" Teddy asked desperately.

"I don't know, okay?" Billy hissed back, turning to walk away again. For a second time, Teddy pulled him back.

"Please don't walk away, Billy…"

"I really don't want to talk about it now."

"The when will we? You made it sound like we were breaking up. Are we?"

Billy looked at the ground, and then turned away yet again. "I don't know…" he mumbled. "I need to think."

Just then, Teddy reached out and grabbed his still-but-perhaps-not-for-long boyfriend by the hand. Billy was getting angry. He swore to himself, if Teddy tried to pull him back like that one more time, he was going to go Wiccan on his ass, regardless of secret identities (somewhere at the back of his mind, the boy wondered if it would be possible to turn Teddy into a frog… he _was_ a witch, after all). But this time Teddy just held onto his hand to keep him in place as he walked around him slowly and nonthreateningly.

Billy stayed still, finally, and Teddy stepped a little closer. "Billy, I―"

"Teddy," Billy cut him off, trying to be patient but only just able to be, "I'm serious now, leave me alone. I can tell, you want to go back to your friends, where you can laugh about little fags like me and pretend to be straight. And don't think that I―"

"Billy," Teddy interrupted the boy's steadily escalating rant. The brunette looked back at him with an expression clearly asking 'what?' in an impatient manner. "Shut up," the blond said with a little laugh, closing the small gap between them with another step. With that, he pulled the very surprised Billy close to him and pressed their lips together, apparently not caring any more where they were and what it looked like to other people. The smaller of the two de-stiffened after a moment and melted into his boyfriend's embrace, resting his hands on Teddy's wide shoulders and standing on his toes a bit to be able to keep the contact.

The kiss went on longer than expected, and Teddy was obviously ignoring the gasps and murmurs of the people around them and the spluttering protests of his teammates behind him. After a while, they finally broke the firm seal that had been trapping their lips together, finding that even superheroes need to breathe at some point. Billy turned his head downward, leaning his forehead against his much taller boyfriend's chin with his eyelids still drooped shut.

"That was… unexpected," he said softly, dropping his hands down a bit. "I guess this means we're out now, huh?"

"I guess so," Teddy replied with a little laugh that made Billy shiver. "_Now_ do you see how I feel about you?" he asked.

"Yeah," his boyfriend answered somewhat lamely, feeling silly. He paused, remembering where they were. "I don't even have to open my eyes to know that everyone is looking at us," the magic boy said quietly, curling the hands that rested on Teddy's broad chest into soft fists. "I can _feel_ them staring."

"Well then," Teddy answered with a smile, tilting his boyfriend's chin up with a gentle hand so that their eyes met again and their lips were impossibly close. "Let's give them something to stare at…"

**

* * *

**

The end! And quite a nice one at that, if I do say so myself. ^.^

Let me know what you thought of it. Review, please~!

(EDIT 8/22/09: By the way, if you're a fan of the Young Avengers, which I assume you are, since you read this, I highly suggest that you come and join us over at the brand-spanking-new YA forum! It's at fanfiction (dot) net/forum/Everything_Young_Avegngers/64815/ and it's sure to be a fun time!)

[Edit 1/31/10: There are now _two_ sequels to this story. If you feel like checking them out, you can find them in my profile!]


End file.
